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00:00:08 [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning Church and I welcome again to another blessed Sunday morning to you and we are continuing on with our service on lamentations let me recap a bit or no let me chase in lamentations chapter 3 which is what we did last week and there's essentially three points to it the first is that lamentations struck the tree first thing is that lament has a purpose what is the purpose the purpose is that it leads us to hope so there's a journey we have this journey that goes from grieving and weeping it
00:00:49 leads us to hope so lament as we mentioned before it's a prey of pain that leads us to trusting in God and how do we do that firstly chapter 3 the key verses on mercy and a state fossil of the goal of God are right smack in the middle of the book in the sense you can see the gospel is in the center of all our sufferings so in many ways hope comes not because our circumstances changed but God changes us on the inside that's why His mercies are new every morning his love is steadfast and we see again how hope is connected to two other
00:01:26 things faith and of course the greatest of all love and the love of God is take fast that's why Jesus died for us on the cross he gives us hope and we see two things his mercies never end there's an eternal aspect of it and His mercies are new every morning and we have this moment by moment mercies every morning we wake up his mercies are new every morning and we had that eternal aspect of it it never ends and it's really a great great chapter great verse I mean it's one of my favorite verses today
00:02:00 we're going to continue on about lamentations and we're gonna take right now a broader stroke to it today we're gonna look at other parts of Scripture and we have a surprise for you this morning good news you don't just see my face you're gonna see a lot more people and let me introduce you right now to our studio audience and let me just show you who we have right here that are and we're trying to do what we call a a representation of the church in all its aspects so on one hand we have possibly on clergy and
00:02:37 reservoirs laity so we have representation of clergy and laity and then we have of course we have all the new oh why new wine or this I should not have like a good illustration opener yoga person this Michelle Michelle young beautiful elegant me Oh Haggard wasting away so intergenerational we have Perry Oh but beautiful not Haggard not wasting away and she's our missionary part of it so this is our intergenerational inter-gender into whatever I call it the mixed bag of the church and what we're
00:03:16 going to do this morning is we're gonna ask our studio audience serious questions and lamentations now here's the thing now come clean with you they don't know the questions scouts honor I would never ask out but you know my guess is yes my no is no so I'm gonna ask them questions they don't know the questions and we hope these questions are relevant to all of you watching us here all right so let's start off right here's question one okay and we're gonna open it all up alright so let me do a bit of summarizing your first now lament
00:03:44 lamentations do you know did you know one-third of the Psalms on the men's one-third the book illuminations is the longest lament in the Bible you have job job has a large portion of it as a lament the book of Habakkuk has a large portion of it in the men Nahum I had two prayers and N at the beginning which is lament and in the New Testament Jesus laments over Jerusalem so to lament is very much part of Scripture and part of what we call the worship of the congregation and what's particularly what I just mentioned is there is
00:04:25 corporate not individual is both but largely corporate so that means in Scripture in the pages of the Bible God's people lamented together into this language in their worship service so here's a question to our studio audience has the modern-day Church forgotten this have we lost lament you know worship service now this worship service you had to get a rah-rah hallelujah or you get a sober very very quiet or you get better worship very emo and where has the man gone let's see what sister Perry got to tell us about this
00:05:07 yeah I think I view I would say lament is being honest with God about the state the currency of things whether in our lives or in the world and yeah so I think that's kind of missing quite often so you think our worship service that's the last frame another way do you think let's make it special figure do you think FBC needs to rediscover the men in his worship service yes I would say so okay all right so let's learn less let's not throw it over to a worship pastor let's put it in a hot spot here let me
00:05:45 in sweat a little bit so our Reverend revered worship pastor what do you think about that well I've been to many churches and they like to call Sunday the celebration service' and technically yes I mean it is because we celebrate the Lord's Day right but they forget it begins with actually the woman going and grieving before that celebration happens all right and I think our celebrations oneis do one faster you know you rah rah make you feel good make you feel like you know tell you the story at the end of the
00:06:20 story you know we like the end of it man but we don't like the process of getting there and said enough wherever I go there's not enough for me then then I can imagine if someone comes and they just lost someone they loved yesterday and they want to come watch it one Sunday you expect me to immediately change into this Mona that I can sing celebrate Jesus celebrate you know I just don't know how to get there you know I need to get there with help and I don't think our worship services model or give room for that helpline and
00:06:59 that's kind of sad you know because then they feel so lost or feel so disconnected so that's interesting so this morning we want to take some hard questions about ourselves so we're not trying to make this academic so the question is going through this book this month is God saying something to ask corporately so most of you don't know it Michelle is hopefully God winning is going to be incoming worship leader worship ministry hit all right so of course you're gonna ask her very hard questions and is this and and IIIi do
00:07:41 resonate you what Leon said I mean for example if I had a bad day on Saturday night I had a fight with somebody or I just went through a period of immense trouble I my heart is troubled and I come on to Sunday morning and the music just you know III myself I wonder whether I can okay so so here's a hard question to ask Misha and and you know we want to really say that Washington has done so much we in no way criticizing the worship team is understanding I think everybody has worked so hard and piety and we want to
00:08:20 encourage them and this is no sense trying to criticize anybody but looking a fetter pearls God is revealing something to us would you now as head of the worship ministry do any changes to our worship to incorporate lament personally I I do feel that lamentation is missing in our corporate worship Allah for me um from where I came from when I when I worship on my own I think I practiced a lot of lamentation without knowing that it's called a meditation you know I used to express a lot of my hurt and anger in in worship in in my
00:09:06 personal worship and a lot of times I bring that to church as well like when I'm in church or when I attend another Church during songs and all that I would cry out it's just me it's just part of me but when I join NBC I do find that element is missing I'm not sure to be honest I'm not sure is it because the way our worship is structured that's why the people are not doing it or is it because the people are just not comfortable doing it no matter how restructuring you know I think it has to be both ways
00:09:45 like we can I think in terms of worship service there should be a balance of celebration and lamentation but when we come to the point of lamentation whether the people will participate whether the people will open up themselves to allow the spirit to walk inside them and for them to actually cry out in public in corporate manner whether they will do that or no I think that's equally implicated whether we are ready to do it and in some sense you're saying it to do lament in worship is taking us to an
00:10:21 uncomfortable place and for most of us we worship within our comfort zone we like worship yes I guess what she was some people like here some people like Hillsong and maybe God is telling us worship is really normal form and I think you spoke a little bit about that in gamma and I think anything that takes us out of our comfort zone quite lucky with us is God speaking to us okay so here's something to all you viewers out there right and we want to make this morning interactive it would it be uncomfortable for you and I and if
00:10:59 the worship team introduces lament into the worship service and you come on a Sunday how would you respond to it why don't you drop us an email drop me a whatsapp we want to make this and we want to hear from you okay we gonna there are no answers this morning this morning we just want to really pull it all out and we just gonna ask God to convict our conscience so today the panel is not here to lecture anybody so let me ask now second question we're going to go to a second question I want you guys out there to open your Bibles
00:11:27 to lamentations chapter five so open your Bibles right now to let me pitch in Chapter five know someone here don't worry I'm just gonna read verses 1 through 11 and these are considered some of the most harsh of verses in the book of lamentations I remember when I read it I was like ah I didn't want to read anymore it goes more worse than there but I'll just read it to you ok so lemon teach in chapter 5 verse 1 remember Lord what has happened to us look and see Oh disgrace how many heritance has been
00:11:58 turned out with strangers our homes to foreigners we have become fatherless our mothers or widows we must buy the water we drink our wood can be had only at a price those who pursue us are at our heels we are weary and final rests we submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread or inset the sin and are no more and we bear the punishment slaves rule over us and there is no one to free us from their hands we get up bread at a risk of our lives because of the salt in this desert here it gets really
00:12:30 uncomfortable our skin is hot as an oven fabric from hunger women have been violated in Zion virgins in a town of Judah and I don't read anymore and I remember reading it and it made me so uncomfortable and and interestingly this chapter was picked up by Psychology Today by one of the most famous psychologists in Britain cost even kill foot and he picked out how to people or Old Testament even understood this in lament and and for me when I read this I I can see images of today it's so easy to read these verses to what's happening
00:13:09 today and we want to just ask perhaps Leon and Michelle to sort of respond to this I mean let's slice us let us Leon when you read this what comes to mind how does that so triggered you to me it's a very real thing so I don't feel distant from it I feel that most people don't really realize how real these things are or how these things are actually happening now well yeah paid for I just lost a friend yeah I know member you're telling me about it and today we're gonna just go real guys and let's give possibly on a
00:13:51 bit of time to process but he's sharing with me I want to just take it off him a bit so it's easier he had a friend who was doing his thesis his doctorate in in America and he was on Nigeria and fellow brother and lost his life recently in a tribal warfare in Nigeria and I know Leon has been sharing the last few nights how this I just affected him there's no place to run to anyway it's it's just starting use you know to hear that you don't you think you never think one of your own friends would be martyred for their faith
00:14:31 leaving behind a children you know you never think that you have people around you being raped being but it's happening now you know trying to commit suicide it's just this is happening all around and our services feel so distant from the people such as this and I just can't make sense of that disconnect it and when I read this is like there are people that are trying so hard to even get water to drink yeah and that's so real today's like what we just see all over the news let me just tell our viewers when you look at the book of men
00:15:12 the author jeremiah progresses from reaping purposefully to two points the first is what we did last week to hope the god is eternal and cosmesis and new every morning the second is what Jeremiah does at the end of every chapter is what we call in Phillip Terry prayers now no wonder that term mean the theological term to simply mean is a call to justice in Chapter five the latter part of it is really call to justice meaning prayer has to lead to action and we are the hands and the mouth and the feet of that action
00:15:50 and that's what the gospel is that's there's new life in the gospel you're caught to victory not for yourself but for others Oh Michelle I mean let me just make it even more difficult I'll look at it for most woman's point of view okay I think I spoke about it two weeks ago about the me to movement and how the church is lagging behind and here the öktem makes no bones about it in fact he mentions it twice chapter three he shudders about what happens to the women and chapter 5 he repeats it so to Jeremiah he has a heart of women in
00:16:24 this can you respond as a woman to perhaps the role of the church in this and have we have been done a bit too to look up for women and sisters if you talk about I'm not sure about the churches now but if you talk about FBC specifically um I am not sure to be honest when I read this I think the word that I have is also disconnection yeah I felt like we we really cannot I mean we read about it we also read about a lot of persecutions and hunger and even all kinds of movement black lives matter even me to movement
00:17:09 and all that in the news but do we really feel it do we can we really connect to it you know but these things are like happening in America and and feel like it's in other places I think most of us will feel like yeah I I agree that they should not be oppressed I agree that everybody should be treated equally and things like that but where do we really feel it say in collect your thing here here take it from a woman's point of view I remember of course now is the trending hashtag is I can't breathe okay but let's take a few is
00:17:42 back when the me to movement was just all over the news and and my question was how did it judge respond to it you know where was the church where was the church in Malaysia it will be an again like what you see it was some label the disconnect we just went on with our services yeah and and and and these things happening so how do you feel again this morning about the Oz heart pressures and again the lemon has to lead to justice that's what the text is telling us where do you think embassy should respond to say oppression and say
00:18:20 for example women and let's take it widely domestic violence minority groups where women are subservient how do you think FBC should respond with the gospel message in this I think may be the first step that we could do is to take a more proactive role by reaching out to this discos or ladies to be honest you know FBC right now we we probably have women or girls who are going through things like that but do we know yeah you know we don't and even if they want to reach out perhaps they do not know who to
00:19:02 reach out so maybe the first thing first that we could do is to do reach out to them saying that hey you know what we we have this ministry or this group or this number that you can you can call us and can I say something I'm just sorry that is too shameful yes yeah crazy correct we don't make it comfortable all right we make it such a shameful thing it's a stigma it's like if I come up with it people look at me differently if I come up and say that I'm vulnerable you know you know you know and so yes we
00:19:43 can do this and we had put the hotline but they're not gonna call right because yeah yes okay I wanna I want to take this before we let out let let Tory close because I particularly want party to close because I think it's usually a burden so very heavily so we must understand first the biblical point of it and I think Scripture gave us lament for purpose for this particular issue they mean the vehicle true it is lamenting and and before and why why that's a stigmatization and while all of that is because I think we missed this
00:20:21 part and I think we rediscovered this is easier for people to reach out I think that's what Scripture is telling us I want I want re to to respond we all know the church should do it and what we don't want to do is to put people on a guilt trip that it doesn't come from a place from within you feel that someone putting a gun to a hidden I know you're just making me feel cool man all right I'll give you a few few dollars we don't want that to happen and but Lemann fixed you from the inside and pushes it God
00:20:50 would guess that's a function of the man and why ends been a prayer for justice you wanna respond and close us in this I have actually two responses one in you know based on what we were talking about in church in the situations people find themself in and in that stigma I think that what that calls for is as removing a mass as individuals but also as a church and to make that okay that I come to church and be real and I think that's what limitations helps us do is to be real with God and with each other that
00:21:26 and the things that we're facing they're painful can i interject that and I'll tell you why why lamentations corporate lament helps us do this because if you tell people you know come and tell it because of men especially our egos getting a real project me but when I get 600 people we'd be in the same fry I don't feel so bad and that's fine lament in the Bible is corporate so the guy who doesn't have any issue is lamenting for someone else a personal issues lamenting for himself and we all come together and I think that's
00:21:59 something we are missing in the church the idea of doing it as the body and when we do as a body especially for men are easy for guy to take off his mask what do you think yeah yeah that's true and then when I think of the wider perspective of the world and the state of the world and we all know from Scripture that's very much in God's hats the destitute the poor the hungry the thirsty and and you know even in Matthew 25 he says if you do that to any of them you're doing it to me so you know very
00:22:32 much it's on God's heart and yet those so often we don't even stop to think about them in a letter Lord pray and I think the mentation is a beginning is the foundation because you come to God and say this is not okay you know it's not okay that people are being discriminated that refugees are being discriminated and call names and asked to go home to - what it is not okay that about 10% of the world live on less than two US dollars a day and limitations helps us do that is to just come before God and say this current
00:23:12 state of affairs is not good enough and I know it's not on your heart so God give it give us the heart yeah give us your heart you know so often people will read these things and in the news so hear in the news and you say it's too far you know it doesn't affect my life or my family but then today I say you know with lamentation again helps us do a stepping-stone but I can you see Oliver Bible God will call us to action and things like hey if it's too far and you know it's a distant sort of issue read about educate yourself
00:23:52 talk to people talk with each other about it and as we lament as we educate ourselves we talk about it I believe that God will give us a heart that will help us pray more specifically and it's a process and and this how it tries to worship because you can't do two sermons and lamentation and show people graphic images and say if you go to lament people just feel guilty and you'll fade off and that's why the worship service is key because if God's gonna change our hearts in the last twenty thirty years
00:24:27 I've been living us in a way I'm not gonna change it over to services yeah unless every man lament or product Lee is ingrained or service then all the time God was soft on our hearts you know and so again we want you to respond and again we want to make it interactive so you're watching this send us or whatsapp send us an email you want to get your feel on this and you know let us all do this together and we're gonna take this to a much more difficult questions we're not gonna ask everybody about
00:25:00 lamentations and your personal pain so now we're gonna go a little bit more deeper and make it much more personal and if you do remember the summer series when we first started chapter one we and again the studies show this people respond to sufferings in two ways one we are stoic about it especially men the buried inside is a no problem but they heard and that something just comes and explode in many many ways and then you have the opposite extreme and and again at the risk of being success and women
00:25:33 are more prone to this is where they just give in to despair you bring your friends in it just keep going on and on and also there's one extreme of the drowning your despair and the other extreme where you sort of just hold it in and the men in many ways is something in between so I want to ask Michelle to sort of just tell us how you think men can help us too says our own grief and he say for everybody out there who's probably suffering so somebody struggling out there how will the man why did God give us the
00:26:04 man to help us process our own pain yes and that's really all what we want I I had a very difficult childhood and there was a lot of hurt and and all that in me I suppose started when I was growing up and and as a teenager as well and and I had nowhere to to express no one would listen I had nowhere to to cry up to and things like that until I found God and so when I when I found Christ there started my healing process so my healing process you can say is basically lamentation I was just crying and crying
00:26:59 non-stop whether it is in church or or in my personal prayer prayer time and and I I thank God that I found a good church back then a good family who allow me who gave me that space to do it and they realize that I needed it and and so back to your question I think I think it's really important to be able to to do that I think a lot of us we we may not be I mean I wasn't I wasn't comfortable crying in front of people either you know III I felt like I have problem I should just keep it to myself
00:27:45 because like I said when I grew up nobody would listen and but until I learned to cry out to God then I realize how important it is and then and then I also learned it's okay to cry out in front of my brothers and sisters in Christ it's a very important point is okay to do it yeah I think Leon maybe again we always tying it back to worship yeah how can how can the church how can a BC get people that space I think what we are what Michelle is telling us we all need to process our pain and you know
00:28:20 some people say there's five stages to grieving and the first thing is that there must be a correct way of letting this out with in a godly framework how do you think how do you think the church can facilitate this I think you value time too much I see interests and we're trying to get through the service capture trying to do whatever and then you know and let me see people cry everything is a waste of time I remember when I was in Bible School and employed a new stuff and he was kind of queer so because he was
00:28:57 different and anyway he can't begin by sharing his testimony about how he was a he was gay and he was a prostitute he was raped and in that service itself right time Stood Still and we were just all stunned the story brought everyone to tears and then it broke down all the barriers suddenly we realize what he's been through Sonny me realize what he who he is and I tell you I don't know how long I saw this man but he went on for a long time he didn't feel like and I feel like yeah it felt like we all wanted to give him
00:29:48 all the time nobody care to believe and everybody was surrounding him crying with him praying with him and that's what I feel we if you value someone yeah like if he's all family members we would spend all the time in the world we won't worry about it time but we are so concerned about it you know so much so that that if God wants to take that time for this person if everything's stood still just for one person in our service would we say okay and I think yes because that's what Jesus did he stopped he stopped everything he did and
00:30:30 he grew and he one person he stopped everything and he welcomed the children he showed this example of the example that it is not just doing in the ministry that was important to him it was that person's story for us most people have that gone toward ritual service starts at 8:45 must finish 11:00 and we just go to be mechanically anything any form you want but we there's no expectation that God will move in on this and do this or a table Leon says to I know something which Perry really has always been very
00:31:08 passionate about and I think the man is very linked to it and I know Perry is quite passion about spiritual formation I know and and I I think the man really is a subset of it I want to ask you heavy loss how to process silence in the church the idea of the pause you know the pause does the silence what do you think we will be so rush maybe get uncomfortable in silence yeah I think so it's quite evident you know in times of prayer I will say let's be silent and you know if you count and I have done
00:31:51 that it's it's value 20 seconds zero count of 20 and we zoom in to prayer and it's the same in conversation as well in church you notice people are not just Church I think anyway I'm comfortable with silence yeah and sometimes I want to encourage that because I think you know people need space to really say what's on their heart and sometimes it's okay to have that silence but silence along with solitude so that's you know setting aside space from people and from the regular things and tasks of our life
00:32:33 gives us space than to hear god yes so when we lament we pull up to God and say this hurts you know this this situation is unacceptable Lord and you needs to change but it's in the silence and solitude that we can hear God and I understand when people that is very uncomfortable I came in a conversation if there's spaces of silence we all get uncomfortable but it is in the silence that we can hear God more clearly speak to us so lamentation is pouring out our pains and sorrows to God and in crying
00:33:16 out saying him this is not right you know but then in the silence we can hear God speaking to that whatever it may be whether it's his assurance of his presence or you know things that he wants us to do as next steps but without that we quickly just keep going on and on with life and with other things how do we hear him you know I want to take you a bit on that and honor go to Scripture if you look at chapter tree of lamentation Jeremiah in the first 18 verses go through his sufferings how he suffered and then using this word this I
00:33:53 remember this I remember this I remember anything yet I caught the mind and there he has hope so what happens that he recalls a lot of God's faithfulness during his time of trials is that something like what you're trying to say that we need to have that space to not just absorb our issues but to look at where God was how God was working through all of him yes yeah so when in private I think for me it's at silence and journaling as well yes yes because that also is way to recollect to recollect my memory what Jeremiah did to
00:34:33 remember yeah how about corporately difficult it yes it'll be different I think corporately is to recollect with Scripture yes God you did this right in the past and then to also recollect but then you did that in our lives as a church in my life as an individual in soy sauce life in our church and like you do that again because that is who you are just think okay I want to take an open question to all of you okay we've been looking at processing our own pain using lamentations as a process how
00:35:08 one now about another person's pain another person's pain and we often thought about empathy and put these always about going to a person to where his pain is as opposed to trying to bring a person to us and often we always say that people don't listen in now we need to hear people and I think the mental where'd you see lament in all of this well why did God give us love men with other people's pain remember in the book of lamentations Jeremiah weeping would you Salam he's weeping for the others you know
00:35:39 yeah what do you think about this beyond yeah Misha was sharing about how the church actually let her express something I think that's the most welcoming thing that you can do you know to someone who's in pain and but we don't don't you see I'm when I'm going to the ship I'm going to the I'm going to the struggle the last thing I want to hear from someone is that they would just kind of say you know give you the ring yeah okay I'll give you those Bible verses you know God has a God has his sovereign will for you all very well
00:36:17 thinking but thank you very much no you know is not that such a big problem or we let it tell me no I also had a similar problem I'm feeling like this it's wrong yeah it's not wrong to have an extensive time it's not wrong it's and in fact you look at the way Jeremiah lament the language is very strong he tells God you put an arrow on me God you made me target practice you know it's very real Michelle I mean how do you think against him as worship leader ministry how can we how can we restructure and this is a
00:37:05 visa to allow people to really process this and today we come alongside people corporately like what with Perry we'll see what would people in a non-judgmental space that's what Leon is seen without trying to be so heavy-handed and and lecturing how can a worship service be redone to do this that's a very big question it is you have to start somewhere yeah yeah and maybe you guys can chip in how we can sort of go through this what do you think initial ideas do you have I think having that culture is very
00:37:36 important you know the culture of saying it's okay to cry the culture of giving time for people to do the cry out and also the culture of people crying with others and and and lamenting with others because we have people we always have people who are struggling and people who are not struggling at a certain point of time and how making and they can come together and and and know men together right so I think creating that culture and this is a really big question but next time that takes time and we don't
00:38:15 and every level has to go with yeah I agree and it's not just about cognitively trying to do a culture you know you need the Holy Spirit that is it doesn't happen all the time but the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit in the end is the determining factor whether we should let that time listen to the story or not you know we with him or not you know but we are not alright so see a few things coming out here one is we need an a realignment of our culture to we need to really be comfortable with silence and
00:38:56 that gives us that step pause and really we need to really make ABC much more open to the movement or the Holy Spirit am I not fair to say that many ways every see is very cerebral we have this sub top right your gospel center we know Scripture but vulnerable so again we're watching out there we want you to just hear from you know one and raise the gospel when you see your a gospel centered Church doesn't it and comprise everything we just mentioned about everything we just mentioned isn't it in the gospel so
00:39:29 we're gonna come to this may be our last questions but but you know if you're watching don't make this passive contact us with your views and we would really love to hear from you so Church we're ending this session with our studio audience and I I want to get stressed you know all of these came from the heart it was not rehearsed and I like to thank them they spoke really from our heart I want to say we hope whatever we say because he was from the heart we didn't offend anybody he wasn't coming
00:40:03 from a space to criticize anyone to make any remarks we want to be vulnerable and again if you're struggling please go to your live group and pour your heart out and I think Leon was quite right we want to give you that space but also we're going to see why you do that remember other people also might need that space and they also need to love man and and and I think what we're hearing this morning is FBC all of us from the leadership to you we need to do a bit of soul-searching we need to look at
00:40:34 ourselves and we ask God is there parts of our heart that we need to redo and perhaps post mzo do we really need to redo our church service and so that we can come together to lament corporately any closing words for us possibly on no I mean thank you all for sharing it's it's it's really I can feel the Holy Spirit moving here even as we're speaking but I think more than talking why don't we just respond to the spirit by doing a little bit now together so let's do something together right so Church why don't you join us and let's
00:41:08 do a corporate lament together as the body of Christ after we've talked about all these kind of things and one of the things we've talked about is silence I think let's listen to one right now before we come into a moment of prey let's just hear what he's got on God's heart shall we just stay silent and loudly hello your name not.we hello your name we glorify you and everything we do is we come as a body we just we just sit in the pause and we just come to you broken not right now Lord I like to pray for our sins again that's
00:44:10 something we are uncomfortable with I like to pray for everyone out there who's struggling with sins and for all who are blind to their sins teach us to lament and by lamenting Lord we see the consequences of sin as Jeremiah looked over the destruction of Jerusalem and he saw the consequences and so for those who fear that in bondage to sin he pray right now the lament over what that sin has done to their lives to their finances to their family and perhaps by doing that they see the horrors of sin and love by that
00:44:52 you give them hope that your mercies are new every morning every morning they wake up your mercies are new and they can fight sin and because your love is steadfast Lord and is never-ending we are saved by your grace there's now no condemnation for them and so they will continue to fight Lord for those of us who are blind to our sins and all of us fall into one of these categories or even both we also love lament teaches us to humble ourselves break us O Lord that we see us for who we really are not the
00:45:35 proud arrogant self-made person that we are let us not be Pharisees let us a pride ourselves that be a gospel centered Bible knowledge full of activity Christians that we are but just sinners broken before cross every lament real ameno Lord that we've been blind to our sins with Lemann Lord that you show us where we have gone wrong open our ears to what people tell us open our through what you're speaking to us toward the Holy Spirit a Lord again we have hope yet this we come to mind yet this we
00:46:17 remember why do we have hope because we remember a lot what you did for us on the cross how you died for us you saved us from our sins and Lord teach us every day to declare you are not just our Savior by your Lord over every area of life and make us maybe make this our daily prayer and we say this in Jesus name Amen father we come before you lord to say that we need your mercy and grace every day of our lives Lord we confess that we are sinful people yes but you alone are holy Lord you alone are worthy but I
00:47:19 come before you when I commit our struggles struggle with life Lord struggle with temptations and the expectations that that plays upon us in this life of God Father we live in this wicked world but yet we are called to be christ-like how do we do that Lord how do we do that how do we exercise grace when people are nasty to us how do we exercise mercy when people accusing us word you know what place and what's worse is sometimes in our family Lord show this Lord how amen and they are those Lord who are going through who are
00:48:22 suffering from depression because of all this Lord they are stressed out let me struggle with it all day so Lord and just like what Romans 7 says nor the things that we ought to do we don't do but the things that we ought not to do we are doing it Lord Oh father you submit ourselves to you Lord we proclaim there only through your spirit that we can do this alone only through your spirit that we can we can fulfill the the commands of Lord that you have commanded us through your word Lord how do we love our neighbor as ourselves
00:49:06 Lord teach us O Lord and I proclaim although that our only hope is in you lord we thank you that you are not like us because you are a faithful God you are a God of mercy you are a God of grace you are a God of forgiveness and we can come to you O Lord we can look to you O Lord for strength and we know o God that you will not leave us nor will you forsake us we know that when we cry out to you O Lord you hear us and you will answer lesser God so we thank you remember your goodness Lord we remember
00:49:51 those times the Lord that you have that you show yourself so powerful so great in our lives when you show up let me cry out to you again when your words speak to us so real thank you thank you hallelujah we are so glad that you continue to show yourself to be faithful that you show yourself real to those who are hurt Oh God that your work will continue to speak out so loud that it cannot shut it off oh god when they read your word yes Lord Jesus and heal those who are hurt oh god I pray heal those who are suffering in
00:50:27 silence oh God I pray Lord that they will realize that they will learn that it's okay to cry out to you it's okay to cry before you it's okay to come to you as naked as they are because you accept us as who we are O God that we will strip off our mass and come to you Lord is it and I thank you for your love thank you for your everlasting love we thank you that when the world falls away when everyone has felt ahsoka you alone you alone stand faithful and you alone Lord is the one that we can hope we can put our hope
00:51:09 in the Lord we thank you Father thank you Jesus in your name I pray father even as we recognize that you are a God who has called us and sent us into the world and that though we are the bearers and the carriers of your gospel through the broken wall around us those who have no voice those who the widows the fatherless the destitute the hungry are the ones that are on your heart and even as you send us that is the task before us Lord and so now we look around us and we see the brokenness of the
00:52:02 world we see discrimination we see hunger we see people this place because of war because of violence we see children trafficked into sexual slavery Lord these things break your heart and we asked lot that would break our hearts as well we're not we cannot see it we cannot relate to it because it doesn't happen around us we ask that you open our eyes to see open our ears to hear open our hearts to feel what they feel an experience and give us a heart Lord because the way it is it's not good enough it's not right
00:52:57 that children are sold into sexual slavery there are people who don't even have enough for food for the day and law in Scripture you say when we feed the hungry we give water to the thirsty we close those without we visit the prisoners when we do that we do it unto you so Lord where we don't know how often we don't feel enough compassion and we we just recognize we we don't know how we we cannot connect it's sometimes very far very distant no as we later before you we asked you give us the heart you show
00:53:48 us the way and every day lot you put it in stir our hearts to say this is not doing enough this is not the way you met the world to be help us not to be truly the people your people sent with the gospel human lost sent with food with water and with the Living Word Alleluia so you know what come do that right or not don't this and among us Jesus Amen lone ancestors can I invite you to kneel at home where you are together even as we come to commit this prayer to the Lord this posture is a posture where we
00:54:57 recognize that we need to be humble again before the king of kings and a lot of lords even as we beseech his sovereignty over our lives and our situations let us come and cry out to our Father father you said you know what that if one of us would treat those that are homeless or without clothes and cover them we're doing it like we're doing it to Jesus this tells me that you love and care for us but this also tells me that you actually suffer with those that suffer that you do not take any pain or
00:55:51 any suffering for granted then whatever people are going through you understand it more than anyone else can you know this little discomfort a lot of coming down on our knees it's so much less than the pain we see that is really happening then we come to say Lord show your glory so is that you are magnificent so is that you are true show us that you the higher than we can understand show us that you have provided our healer Lord there are so many things law that we can pray for but what better prayer to pray
00:56:45 then asking you to be God because you are God take control of our church take control of our lives not do we do want to do this if it's not what you've asked us to do we don't want to move anyway if you've not called us to and we pray a lot that you will begin to move our hearts towards your people you've always called us to love our neighbor as ourselves and today we humbly come asking you to help us do that we recognize we have not love our neighbor but but we have not love our neighbors as we love ourself we love
00:57:25 ourselves so much more we have not become more like you so today this this posturing less of us and more of you so father we come knowing that we don't have all the wisdom to know how to be welcoming to be honest to be vulnerable to to do all the things you've called us to but we know that you've gifted us your Holy Spirit and we are asking for you to fall on us change the climate of our church changes in every bit Lynette let the new normal be something spiritual not just about how a social distance or how we live our lives
00:58:19 differently Lord let it be different because Lord it is we have changed and be transformed by the renewing of our mind and our spirit law through Jesus Christ our Lord we thank you that we can come before you and we humbly ask that you make us more like you
